Tactile 3D Printed Cards to Aid in Teaching Children with Disabilities

January 2018 - Maggie LeDoux is a Speech Language Pathologist at Moton Elementary School in Florida who has developed an innovative teaching tool for a student of hers with multiple disabilities. The student has cerebral palsy, is on the autism spectrum, and was born blind. Ledoux in coordination with the student’s mother and Cynthia Dills, a vision teacher at Moton, created a series of 3D printed cards that the student can interact with to enhance learning. On the challenge of developing an effective tool for a child with disabilities, Ledoux said, “People don’t realize that there is limited access to materials for multiple disability kids.”

 

The student can hold the 3D printed card in his hand, feel the raised outlines and associate that with a verbal input. Ledoux has prepared a binder which helps him communicate more easily and plan his day. On this binder, she said,  “He has cards for major activities in his day, like going to speech or PT, as well as basic wants and needs like ‘goldfish snack,’ ‘bathroom,’ his ‘walker,’ etc. The tactile cards are in a binder and he feels across the page until he gets to what he is looking for and usually pairs it with a verbal response to make a request.” However, a challenge with 3D printing is the long printing times of a single card, ranging from two hours to two days.

 

Ledoux when considering how she would like to continue expanding this tool said, “Long-term, I would like him to independently access his tactile cards to make requests on his own and reduce the amount of prompting and modeling I do for him to express his wants and needs. “He’s blossomed with the visuals- I think he feels the independence.” Ledoux hopes this model can be adapted for other children with disabilities and is looking for grant funding. On how the tactile 3D cards have changed her student’s life, LeDoux said, “I gave him access to something and he’s a different kid. It would be really beneficial for the county, as well as other students, to have access to this.” Source: Julie Maglio, Hernando Sun.